depitted

Depitted is the past participle of the verb depit, meaning to remove the pit or stone from a fruit or seed. It is largely synonymous with “pitted,” but far less common in everyday usage. The term tends to appear in technical, processing, or labeling contexts rather than general cooking prose.

In practical use, depitted products are described as having had their stones removed to facilitate consumption or further processing. Removal can be done manually, with knives or dedicated cherry pitters, or mechanically on a processing line using specialized pitting equipment. Common targets include olives, cherries, peaches, plums, and apricots; other stone fruits and some seeds may be depitted in industrial settings.

During processing, depitting is often followed by washing, inspection, and sometimes slicing or dicing. Care is taken to minimize flesh damage and to remove any residual fragments. Packaging may note that the product is depitted or pitted, depending on labeling conventions and regulatory requirements.

Etymology and usage notes: depitted derives from depit + -ed, but the form “pitted” is far more widely used in modern culinary and commercial contexts. Writers and manufacturers frequently prefer “pitted” for clarity, while “depitted” may appear in more formal, technical, or legacy documents or when a strict distinction between stone removal and other seed removal processes is desired.